TANIA MENESSE

Director of economic development, City of Shaker Heights

Tania Menesse lives, breathes and works Shaker Heights. She has been the city's director of economic development for nearly 18 months, and she plans to stay.

This is surprising to her now,as she never expected to come back to Shaker after high school.

Her family moved to the eastern suburb from Mumbai, India, when she was 4 years old. Ms. Menesse went off to the University of Virginia and, after graduating in 1996, took jobs doing telecommunications sales in Dallas and then Denver.

But by 2005, when she was pregnant with her second daughter, she and husband Rick Smith, also a Shaker Heights High School graduate, decided it made sense to come back home and buy a house in Shaker. It has been an eye-opening experience.

“I see immense opportunity here, which is exciting,” she said.

In Shaker, she has helped develop LaunchHouse, a business incubator in a former auto dealership. Ms. Menesse also is working on plans to redevelop the community's commercial districts, which have never been a priority in this largely residential community.

But that wasn't part of the plan. When she returned to Northeast Ohio, Ms. Menesse worked from home for a telecommunications consulting firm after the birth of her daughter. However, a volunteer experience at Towards Employment, a nonprofit that helps everyone from ex-felons to the homeless find their way back into the work force, made her rethink her career choice.

“It showed me I was interested in work in the community, but that I was not cut out for social service,” she said.

So she went back to school, at Cleveland State University, where she earned a master's degree in urban affairs with an emphasis on economic development. While there, she did a work placement at the Cleveland Foundation, helping shape the program now called Global Cleveland, an effort to boost immigration to the region.

But Ms. Menesse, 37, never expected to be working full time in the public sector.

“It wasn't that I was against the idea of working for government, but my view of government's role in economic development had always been negative,” she said.

Shaker Heights Mayor Earl Leiken said Ms. Menesse's life experiences influenced his decision to hire her. He thinks she's adapted just fine to government work.

“She's more than fulfilled our expectations,” Mayor Leiken said.

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